What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (2024)

More than anything during the holidays, I enjoy baking cookies, specifically chocolate chip cookies. It's something my mom and I do together to relax, to escape the pressures of shopping and entertaining.

But every now and then, our chatty nature gets the best of us and when we pull out a batch of cookies from the oven, we can't help but gasp. What's wrong with these cookies?

It happens to all of us. With bakers of all experience levels in mind, my mom and I decided to experiment. We intentionally mucked up the cookie dough in a few different ways to see what would happen and if we could fix the problem. First, we didn't add enough flour; then, we added too much flour; with the rest of the dough, we added a couple extra eggs. But before I go too far down that road, let me share the recipe.

We used a simple, standard Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, which calls for:

  • 2 1/4 cups flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup softened butter
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 3/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 eggs

As the recipe requires, we mixed the dry ingredients and wet ingredients separately, then combined them and added about one cup of semisweet chocolate chips. We baked on the second rack from the top at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 minutes for all of the cookies.

Before we even put the cookies on the sheet, we could tell what was wrong. It's all in the mixer.

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (1)

That's right—just by looking at the way your dough sticks to the mixer you can tell whether you have too much flour, not enough flour, or too many eggs. In this case you can counter the imbalance straight away, adding more wet ingredients or more flour until you get the consistency you want.

Even transferring the dough to the cookie sheet made the errors visible. Dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer. Dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan. Dough with too much flour was like glue—we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

As much as it pained us to move forward, we went ahead and baked the "problem cookies" to show what they look like when they come out of the oven.

Not Enough Flour

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (2)

If your cookies are flat, brown, crispy, and possibly even a bit lacy around the edges, that means you need to add flour to your dough for the next batch. Our cookies were brittle and greasy and cooked much faster than the other dough balls on the sheet.

Though the culprit is usually a flour deficit, butter could also be to blame for this problem. Adding too soft or slightly melted butter to the dough can also result in flat cookies. Many bakers—my mom and myself included—heat the butter to soften it. Warming the butter too long in a microwave can cause it to start melting, so if you notice a little puddle around your sticks of butter, it's best to wait for it to cool off a bit. Avoid the microwave completely if possible by cutting butter into small pieces and letting them sit for 30 minutes. If you're in a rush, try grating cold butter with a cheese grater into the bowl. It softens quickly.

Scooping dough onto a warm pan can also cause the cookies to spread more; so for the second batch and beyond, my mom and I usually stick the dough in the fridge until it's time to load up the next cookie sheet.

The easy fix here is to add more flour to the dough, little by little, until it sticks well to the mixer.

Be sure you're using a thick, good quality baking sheet, too, as thin dark ones promote browning and will cause cookies to bake faster and burn more easily. Use parchment paper to avoid over-greasing the pan. If there's a surplus of cooking spray, it can cause cookies to spread too much.

Too Much Flour

If your cookies come out looking more like biscuits, you've likely added too much flour. Our cookies didn't expand much from the rolled-up balls we put on the baking sheet. They also didn't brown as well as the other cookies. It doesn't take much—in this case, my mom and I added just 3/4 cup extra flour to the dough. The cookies tasted good, but were dry and definitely crumbly.

To make the cookies more tender, Betty Crocker suggests adding 2 to 4 tablespoons of softened butter, or 1/4 cup of sugar, to the batter.

Too Many Eggs

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (4)

If your cookies come out flat on top, with a cake-like texture, you've added too many eggs. In this case, my mom and I added two extra eggs. Adding extra eggs is not a common issue, but we were curious. The results looked presentable, though the chocolate chips were lost a bit in the dough. Biting into the cookie, however, we could tell a big difference. Yuck. They were gummy and lost much of their sweetness.

Saving cookies from too many eggs isn't as straightforward as saving it from too much or too little flour. It takes a little finagling. Add some flour and maybe a little bit more sugar.

What my mom and I ended up doing was going with the egg-induced texture to create something entirely different. We added more flour, more sugar, chopped nuts, and baked the dough in a greased 9"x12" pan. Voilà, blondies!

Finding Your Perfect Cookie

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (5)

I wouldn't dare presume to define the perfect cookie. It's different for every person. I personally like them the way my mom makes them, chewy in the middle and crispy on the edges, a little flat but not brittle. They hold up well when sealed in an airtight container and freeze beautifully. These are made by following the recipe above, only the butter is perhaps a little softer than called for.

Some folks want their cookies to be a bit fluffier, a tad taller. In that case, adding a sprinkling of extra flour and chilling the dough can help achieve that goal.

If you like chewy cookies, chill the dough before forming into balls and baking, them remove from oven just before they look completely done. (The tops should not be wet.) One person I know swears by sticking the entire baking sheet into the freezer immediately to stop any baking from residual pan heat, but you can also just transfer them to a wire rack to start cooling right away.

The Role of Each Ingredient

As a bonus, I did a little research to find out just what role each ingredient plays in chocolate chip cookies, so you can adjust your recipe however you feel like experimenting.

Flour adds fluff and texture to the cookies. Adding too little flour can cause cookies to be flat, greasy, and crispy. Most recipes assume you'll use all-purpose, but if you want a lighter, crumblier cookie texture, choose one with a lower protein content such as cake-and-pastry flour.

Baking soda helps cookies spread outward and upward while cooking. Adding too little can cause flat, lumpy cookies. Adding too much can lend a bitter taste to the cookies.

Salt enhances the flavors and balances the ingredients. Forgetting salt can result in overly sweet cookies. Adding too much salt can result in an awful taste.

Butter is an emulsifier and it makes cookies tender. It also adds in the crispy-around-the-edges element. Adding too much butter can cause the cookies to be flat and greasy. Adding too little butter can cause the cookies to be tough and crumbly. You should use unsalted butter to control the salt content, but if you only have salted on hand, reduce the amount of added salt accordingly.

Sugar sweetens the cookies and makes them an enticing golden brown. Adding too little sugar can affect the taste and texture of cookies. Adding too much can cause them to be brittle. Take your time creaming the sugar and butter together at the beginning. Many bakers underestimate the amount of time required to blend the two ingredients thoroughly, as this is rarely specified in a recipe, and it has a significant effect on the end result. Aim for 2 minutes to start.

Brown sugar adds a beautiful color as well as a more complex flavor. They'll also make cookies chewier, softer, and thicker than white sugar. Adding too much can result in dark brown cookies. Adding too little results in paler cookies.

Eggs bind the ingredients and make for moist, chewy cookies. Adding too many eggs can result in gummy, cake-like cookies. Adding too few eggs can result in dry, crumbly cookies. Beat each one in separately and thoroughly. If you run out of eggs while baking and find that you need more, you can add 1/4 cup vegetable oil for each egg required. Another vegan substitute is to mix 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed in 3 tbsp water and soak for five minutes until it thickens.

Chocolate chips are the star of the recipe. Adding too many can result in thin, overcooked cookies. Adding too few is just plain sad. Experiment with blending different kinds of chips for variety; butterscotch, salted caramel, white chocolate, and milk chocolate are always popular.

For an unexpectedly amusing video about the chemical reactions that take place during cookie baking, check out the TedEd video below on the chemistry of cookies.

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide (2024)

FAQs

What's Wrong With My Cookies? A Troubleshooting Guide? ›

Dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer. Dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan. Dough with too much flour was like glue—we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

How to tell what's wrong with cookies? ›

Dough with not enough flour was sticky and hard to transfer. Dough that had too many eggs was runny and spread out on the pan. Dough with too much flour was like glue—we were able to roll into a ball and it stayed in exactly the same shape throughout its time in the oven.

What are three problems with baking cookies? ›

But anyone who's ever made cookies has experienced the agony of treat defeat when a batch baked with the highest of hopes just doesn't hit the mark. They could be dry or doughy, tough or crumbly, spread too thin (or hardly spread at all), entirely too sweet or bewilderingly bland, or burnt or underbaked.

What happens if you add too much baking powder to cookies? ›

Too much baking powder can cause the batter to be bitter tasting. It can also cause the batter to rise rapidly and then collapse. (i.e. The air bubbles in the batter grow too large and break causing the batter to fall.) Cakes will have a coarse, fragile crumb with a fallen center.

How do you fix old cookies? ›

The easiest way to soften cookies with bread is to place the cookies in an airtight container with a slice of bread and leave them for a few hours. The bread will release moisture and help to rehydrate the cookies, making them soft and chewy once again.

How do I resolve cookies problems? ›

Chrome
  1. Open Chrome.
  2. Click the Settings (three-dotted) button on the top-right corner.
  3. Click Privacy and Security.
  4. You may select Allow All Cookies or Block Third-party cookies in Incognito. Do NOT select Block all cookies, as doing so could result in a blank screen.

How do you fix common cookie problems? ›

Using too much flour will make your cookies too cakey, so try reducing the flour amount by two tablespoons. Avoid using cake flour instead; try a mix of all-purpose flour and bread flour for a more dense and chewy texture. Using too much baking powder. According to the science geeks at Serious Eats—we love you!

Is baking soda or baking powder better for cookies? ›

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

What does cornstarch do to cookies? ›

As Levy Beranbaum writes in The Baking Bible, replacing a little bit of the flour in the dough with cornstarch results in “a more delicate cookie that is also easier to pipe or push through a cookie press.” Adding cornstarch helps tenderize tough gluten, contributing to a softer cookie dough with a finer crumb after ...

What does less baking powder do to cookies? ›

Expect about one teaspoon per five ounces of flour; thin and crispy cookies may need a little less, thick and chewy cookies may need a little more. Even without baking powder, a well-aerated dough will still puff with steam. If that supply cuts off before the cookies set, a soft dough will collapse in on itself.

What is the secret ingredient to keep cookies soft? ›

Light corn syrup is another ingredient that you can add to cookie dough that will help it stay softer longer. The corn syrup you buy at the grocery store is not the high-fructose corn syrup that soft drinks are made with; it's a sugar that is liquid at room temperature and helps other sugars say liquid at high heat.

What makes cookies go bad? ›

Mold can develop when cookies are exposed to moisture or stored in humid conditions. Texture Changes: Stale or soggy cookies are past their prime. Fresh cookies should be crisp (if they are meant to be) or chewy, depending on the type.

Why are my cookies so bad? ›

Not enough fat = wrong texture

A shortage of fat can be due to a bad recipe, under measuring the fat, or using the wrong kind of fat (see next tip, below). All will result in crumbly cookies. If all else fails, see if adding another tablespoon or two of [room temperature!] butter to your recipe helps.

How do you know if cookies have gone bad? ›

Off Smell or Taste: Any rancid, sour, or just "off" smell or taste is a clear indicator that cookies have gone bad. Mold: This is a definite sign of spoilage. If you see any mold, the cookies should be discarded immediately.

How do you test if a cookie is working? ›

How to check cookies in Chrome?
  1. Right-click and click on Inspect to open the developer console.
  2. Go to the Applications tab on the console.
  3. Expand the Cookies dropdown under the Storage section. Under Cookies, select the website to see the cookie details.

What is wrong with my homemade cookies? ›

Mistake: When cookies turn out flat, the bad guy is often butter that is too soft or even melted. This makes cookies spread. The other culprit is too little flour—don't hold back and make sure you master measuring. Finally, cookies will also flatten if placed and baked on hot cookie sheets.

How do I check my cookies? ›

In Google Chrome, click ⋮ → "Settings" → "Privacy and security" → "Cookies and other site data" → "See all site data and permissions". On Safari, click "Safari" → "Settings" → "Privacy" → "Manage Website Data…". On Firefox, click ☰ → "Settings" → "Privacy & Security" → "Manage data…".

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